


Laundry Day

by Severina



Category: Stargate Universe
Genre: Community: smallfandomfest, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-10
Updated: 2015-07-10
Packaged: 2018-04-08 15:34:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,261
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4310739
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Severina/pseuds/Severina
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Take off your clothes," she said.</p><p>Nick glanced up from his ever-present notebook, raised a brow. "A bit presumptuous, don't you think?" he asked. "At the very least you should buy me dinner first."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Laundry Day

**Author's Note:**

> Written for LJ's smallfandomfest for the prompt 'laundry day'.
> 
> * * *

Chloe pounded on the door, barely waited for his muffled response before she slammed the palm of her hand onto the lock. The sting only increased her irritation, and she swore under her breath as she waited for the mechanism to engage. She was inside before the door even fully opened, dropping the bag at her feet.

"Take off your clothes," she said.

Nick glanced up from his ever-present notebook, raised a brow. "A bit presumptuous, don't you think?" he asked. "At the very least you should buy me dinner first."

At any other time the joke would have made her smile, perhaps even encouraged her to show him exactly what he'd gain by agreeing to her demands. But today she was tired, pissed off, and in no mood for games. 

"I'm not kidding," Chloe said, and if she sounded a little whiny and pathetic she totally blamed it on the fact that she'd been traipsing through the crew quarters for the better part of two hours. She was _allowed_ to be whiny, damnit. "Young's got me on laundry duty, which means I've got to have everyone's clothes washed and dried by tomorrow morning. That includes our resident cranky scientist, so..." She twirled her finger in the air impatiently. "Hop to it."

"Why?"

"Why?" she repeated. "Because it's kind of difficult for me to run your clothes through the washer when you're still wearing them? Not that the washer is a washer, but you know what I mean. So take 'em off."

"Why," Nick bit out, "are you saddled with laundry duty? You're an intelligent and vital part of this crew, a de-facto member of the science team. You have more important things to do with your time than laundry. Surely one of the useless little civilians could—"

"Because Colonel Young is an ass," Chloe interrupted bitterly, "and this is his passive aggressive way of punishing me for the whole thing with the raft."

"The raft?"

"On the planet? _Yesterday_?" At Nick's continued look of confusion, she rolled her eyes and flopped down onto the bed. "Do you listen to a word I say?"

"If you are talking about the working of the ship, your translations of the Ancient database or Destiny's mission, I am all ears. Otherwise I do tend to tune you out on occasion," Nick said, holding up a hand. "If I didn't, I would find myself caught up in discussions on last year's Marchese collection or who is the 'hottest' Spice Girl, Baby or Posh."

"I don't talk about those things," Chloe groused. "And the answer is Posh, no question."

"Hmm." 

Chloe flung herself flat on her back, stared at the ceiling. Sometimes he made her crazy. "You remember the stream?" she finally asked.

"I do recall seeing it on the kino, yes," Nick replied distractedly.

She raised herself on one elbow, waited until he realized she was staring at him and he reluctantly looked up again from his calculations. "We had to trudge all the way around it before we found the fruit trees. Took hours. Ronald had brought a few tools, so we figured we could build a raft and sail everything back. The raft could hold triple what we could carry in our hands, and the water was flowing that way."

"Smart," he said. 

"Except that the raft capsized halfway across," Chloe said, "and the Gate was closing so we couldn't go back." She let herself slide back down onto the comforter, waved a hand in the air as she again stared blankly at the ceiling. "You didn't realize we didn't have any fresh fruit with dinner last night?"

"Not really, no," Nick said.

"Did you even eat dinner last night?"

"Not really, no."

Chloe shook her head. She left the man alone for one day… "You're hopeless," she muttered.

"And I suppose the raft was your idea?"

"Mine and Eli's," she admitted. 

"And am I to assume that Eli is now scrubbing toilets with a toothbrush somewhere?"

Chloe snorted. "The boy wonder? No, he's on the bridge, running yet another set of figures on how to manipulate the timer for the Gate." 

She closed her eyes. It's not like she could blame Eli. She certainly didn't expect him to raise his hand, say 'oh no Colonel Young it was my fault too, please punish me'. He had, in fact, tried to speak up in her defense… until Young had shut him down with a look. And maybe it was a whole military thing. She'd seen enough movies where the crewman who fucked up got stuck peeling potatoes. Maybe she should just grin and bear it. Stop complaining. 

She furrowed her brow when the bed dipped beside her, opened her eyes and blinked to see Nick leaning over her. "Then don't do it," he said.

The thought of saying No had literally never occurred to her. She'd argued of course, but when Young had put his foot down she'd ducked her head and towed the line. "What?"

"This punishment is petty and vindictive, even more so because it was inflicted on only you and not both responsible parties. Not surprising since it came from the Colonel, but there you have it. So ignore it. You're not one of his men. Tell him to go fuck himself."

If the thought of saying No had never occurred, the thought of telling Colonel Young where to go was completely unthinkable. She had a brief flash of wondering what her father would say to her telling a full-bird Colonel to fuck himself, then pushed the thought out of her mind. Things were different now, and she couldn't be completely sure that her dad wouldn't have done the same before now. 

Nick must have sensed her reticence, though, because he leaned in closer, nudged her arm. "If you'd like, I'll tell him that I require your assistance on these calculations for the propulsion rates."

" _Do_ you need my help with the calculations?"

He lifted a shoulder. "Second set of eyes never hurt anyone."

Chloe narrowed her eyes, considering. "I think it would be more satisfying to tell him to go fuck himself."

"There you go," Nick said, flopping down beside her and rolling onto his side. "Decision made."

She folded her hands on her stomach, blinked up at the ceiling. "Just like that," she said.

"Just like that," Nick agreed. "It also means that you are free this evening for something more than scrubbing the stains from Mr. Brody's smalls." He nudged a finger beneath the hem of her top, leaned in a little closer. "Take off your clothes." 

When he lowered his voice like that – looked at her like that – her pulse sped. She bit at her lip as she rolled toward him, but retained the presence of mind to arch a brow playfully. "Wasn't something said about dinner?"

"Aaah yes," he grinned, produced a graham cracker cookie from somewhere behind his back with a flourish. "Saved it from yesterday's lunch. Who knew it would come in handy?" he said. "Bit stale, but the best I can do on short notice."

"You're a charmer, Nicholas Rush."

"Aye," he said. "Now, are you going to get naked or should I return to my calculations?"

She made a show of wrestling with the decision, finally laughed and grabbed at Nick's arm as he shrugged and made his own show of getting up from the bed. They ended up in a tangle of arms and legs that made shedding their clothes more difficult than it really should be.

Somehow, they managed.


End file.
